


Forgotten Friends

by lunarpaddle



Category: Batman (Comics), Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Post-Crisis on Infinite Earths Crossover Event (CW DC TV Universe), brain was just like... what if........, idk why i wrote this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:40:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27556219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunarpaddle/pseuds/lunarpaddle
Summary: “So…” Steph says. “You don’t remember anythin’ either? You don’t remember… us?” Steph’s eyes start to water – she’s long since taken off the mask – and for a horrible, horrible moment Kara thinks – were they –Steph bursts into laughter at the look on Kara’s face. Lena’s too, by the look of it.“Oh my god, I really got you both there, huh."---It's a whole new timeline, and Kara doesn't remember any of it - not Lex Luthor apparently being one of the good guys, not Lena being a distant celebrity crush she barely knew, and definitely not whoever this is breaking into her room in the middle of the night.
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor, Stephanie Brown & Kara Danvers, Stephanie Brown & Lena Luthor
Comments: 2
Kudos: 64





	Forgotten Friends

Kara wakes up in the middle of the night to the faint noises of someone breaking into her flat – something that’s only confirmed by looking through the wall to see a masked figure climbing through her window.

She… has no clue who this could even be. She cycles through the options in her head, before turning to look at the figure sharing her bed, still fast asleep. 

(She takes a second to appreciate Lena’s hair, splayed out around her in the monochrome light, the way it contrasts with her skin, so soft she wants to – no, right, other things to worry about.)

One of the benefits of the new timeline was that a lot of people who used to know who Supergirl was, for whatever reason (Kara tried to be careful, she really did), didn’t anymore. She guessed someone had taught this Earth’s Kara to be more careful – shame she didn’t remember anything about her life. 

The point was, it was incredibly unlikely that someone was here for Kara Danvers, and whoever was breaking in here was too well equipped to just be a standard robber. Now that she thought about it, there was a possibility they were here because of Alex: the identity of the director of the DEO was about as secret as the existence of the DEO itself – not common knowledge, sure, but not as secret as Supergirl’s identity. 

More likely, though, they were here for Lena. Someone had tracked her, followed her after work perhaps, to this apartment – maybe not even today, maybe they just knew that Kara Danvers was someone they could use against Lena, or maybe they knew Lena was here and wanted to take her out. Either way – 

She stands up and goes to open the door to the bedroom just as the figure is approaching it.

“Hi! Uh, look, I don’t know who you work for, but like – you’re busted! So. You should probably just leave now, tell your boss you got caught or something.”

“Wha’s going on,” Lena mumbles, pushing herself up from the bed a little.

“Hot damn, is that Lena Luthor in your bed, Kara? I mean, congrats on getting some, but ain’t that a bit risky?” says the figure.

Kara tenses immediately. This is someone who knows her by name, and – well, maybe they’re talking about something she has no clue about, but it sounds like they know about the Luthors' too, which isn’t a common thing in this timeline.

“Okay, uh – I have no clue who you are, but look, I super promise you, you don’t wanna mess with me. You should just like, leave, okay?” She takes a closer look at the figure – they’re dressed in what looks like full body armour with a large hood and all kinds of gadgetry attached, well above even what the average DEO agent would have. The uniform is also, she realises, all coloured a dark purple – that sets some brain cells ticking. Superhero, maybe? Or supervillain, for that matter – probably not League though, and no agency she’s aware of lets their agents have a colour scheme.

“Right, well, you’re right,” she says, muscles tensing as she peers around Kara at Lena, “I super don’t wanna mess with ya – good pun by the way, appreciate it – but you’re acting like you don’t know me, and you’ve got the sister of a notoriously tricky supervillain in your bed, and I’m thinkin’ – what, mind control or somethin’? So I should probably, uh. Not leave. Maybe call Alex, or somethin’.”

This person wanted to call _Alex_? Kara had absolutely no idea what was going – 

“Mmh, wait, aren’t you – you’re Spoiler, right?” Lena asks from behind her, getting up to join her at the doorway. “Aren’t you with the Gotham lot? You can ask – well, I didn’t really talk to Kate a whole bunch actually, but she should have at least seen me around during Crisis. Doesn’t that vouch for me?”

‘Spoiler’ stares blankly at them for a few seconds, although that might have just been the hood and mask at work – Kara got the impression she’d somehow manage to express underneath all that anyway though.

“You – you guys know something about what happened to Kate? She won’t talk to any of us, not even Bruce – keeps saying he's supposed to be dead.” 

Kara’s eyes widen.

“Wait, you – Batman’s alive in this timeline?” Kara exclaims.

Everything is silent, and then everything seems to click for everyone at once.

“Oh, fuck, time travel? Seriously?” says Steph.

“Oh, I must of known you before Crisis!” says Kara.

“Babe, did you not read the files Alex gave you?” says Lena.

“Babe?” says Steph.

\---

“I can’t believe you’d do this to me,” Steph says. “I can’t believe I’m going to have to be the one to explain all this to Babs.”

“I mean, technically, that’s probably Alex’s job,” says Lena. “I’m surprised she hasn’t gotten around to updating your lot on the situation yet. I guess she assumed Kate would do it.”

“Don’t throw my sister under the bus like that Lena,” she says. “Poor Kate, though. Stuck in a timeline where the only person she recognises is her cousin who’s supposed to be dead.”

“So, what, our Kate is just… gone? All her memories, all the things we went through with her, just… vanished?”

Kara shifts uncomfortably. She thinks she knows what’s coming next.

“It’s just the paragons, the ones who were actually in the middle of it all, but… yes. None of them retain any memories of this timeline. Those of us who were present both before and after have had our memories returned by J’onn, meaning we have both sets – and then there’s people like you, who at least weren’t on the team for Crisis, and only have memories of the new timeline.” Lena explains.

“So…” Steph says. “You don’t remember anythin’ either? You don’t remember… us?” Steph’s eyes start to water – she’s long since taken off the mask – and for a horrible, horrible moment Kara thinks – were they –

Steph bursts into laughter at the look on Kara’s face. Lena’s too, by the look of it.

“Oh my god, I really got you both there, huh. Nah, we were just friends – young female superheroes with sunny personalities gotta stick together, y’know? Sucks that ya can’t remember shit, but at least you’re not like… an evil version of yourself, or back from the dead with major anger issues, or just a completely boring amnesiac that wants nothing to do with supers. Just means I gotta make friends with you again!”

Kara smiles. She’s starting to see why she was friends with this person – and god, that must be nice, right? Like sure, she had friends who were superheroes here, but it wasn’t… she was the first one, here in National City, and the rest looked up to her in a way that made it weird to talk about that stuff. That was why it had been so nice to meet Barry and Oliver.

She shivers, feeling a familiar pang of sorrow. Yeah, she was definitely up for replenishing her list of superhero friends.

“So, your lot are already aware of my brother’s… inclinations?” Lena asks. “I have to ask, do you have any proof? He’s running the DEO now, which had been our base of operations, and nobody here besides me was aware of the kind of person he really was before our memories were returned.”

“Implying you knew, and you didn’t say anything,” Steph replies. “We always did wonder how involved you were in his bullshit. Torture any innocent aliens recently, Miss Luthor?”

Kara freezes, and watches in slow motion as every muscle in Steph’s body seems to switch into combat mode.

Lena just stares down at the floor.

“I have done things I strongly regret,” she says, “In both timelines. I set out, in both timelines, to be unlike my brother, and in both timelines I thought it enough to disavow his beliefs. I consistently fail, it seems, to realise that Lex’s evil stemmed not only from his bigotry, but also from his fear of being hurt, his inability to control those emotions, and his failure to react to them in a rational manner. I cannot speak to whether there is any making up for what I have done – I can only say that I know my flaws now, and I will not make the same mistakes twice. Or, well, I suppose it would be thrice, given the situation.”

Steph stares at her for a few seconds, eyes like steel, before she relaxes a bit and turns to Kara.

“She’ll do. You always did have a bit of a celebrity crush on her, even though we kept tryin’ to tell you she was evil,” Steph grins when she sees Kara blush, “and she seems genuinely contrite n’ all. And besides,” she turns back to Lena, “in our business big mistakes are pretty inevitable. Difference, usually, ‘s between the ones who recognise it, and learn from it, and the ones who keep on ignorin’ it all the way down into oblivion. You’d be surprised, how many of the ‘good guys’ are the latter.”

Kara, though, is more focused on what Lena said.

“Wait, what happened here?” She asks unthinkingly. Lena winces. “Sorry, you don’t – we don’t have to talk about it right now.”

“It’s alright,” Lena says. “It’s different people, but – well, it’s the same story, more or less. There was a girl, when I was younger, she was – well, she was pretty terrible in retrospect, but I loved her. She did something legitimately wrong that really hurt me, my reaction went well, well over the top –“ Lena sighs. “Ironically enough, it was Lex that pulled me out of it. Guess we switched up the order for losing our minds and going evil in this timeline. But years later, when it was him, he didn’t have a – a Kara, or an Alex, or anything. He wouldn’t listen to me. But I couldn’t – when I knew how it was, when I knew exactly how you can end up there without even realising, I couldn’t give him up. I kept thinking that maybe I’d get through to him, and then just… blaming myself, when I never could.”

Kara reaches over to place her hand on Lena’s. She doesn’t have words for how much she hates that in every single timeline, Lena always seems to get the short end of the stick from her family.

“And that’s my cue to leave, I reckon,” Steph says. “It’s been nice, uh, meeting you? I guess? You guys should definitely come to Gotham some time! The scenery’s awful, but the people are – well, actually, most of the people are awful too, but the good ones are real good!”

“Sure,” Kara laughs, “I’m sure we can find the time for it. Not hard, when you can fly faster than the speed of sound.” 

“Good to see you’re just as cheesy as you ever were,” Steph says, rolling her eyes. “I’ll tell Babs to talk to Alex, ask her to look into stuff with Lex again too, yeah?”

“Thankyou,” Lena replies with a warm smile, “Feel free to let me know if any of you ever need anything that I might be able to provide. I know you already have a billionaire around, but I’ve been told I’m quite clever too.”

Steph snorts, and opens up the window ready to climb out. She’s halfway out when she seems to realise something.

“Oh, um – there’s a chance Damian might come to visit, and if he does _please_ don’t get too upset at him if he draws a sword, it’sjusthiswayofexpressinghisemotionsandhealwaysthoughtyouwerereallycoolokaybye!”

Steph disappears into the night, and the apartment is left in silence.


End file.
